This disclosure relates in general to removable data cartridges and, but not by way of limitation, to automated identification of removable data cartridges.
Tape cartridges are often coded with bar codes when they are sold to customers. These bar codes are used by tape libraries to inventory cartridges. These barcode labels are pre-printed with both industry-standard barcodes and human-readable equivalents and are normally affixed to one side of a data cartridge. The barcode values are used by some host computer data management applications to uniquely associate the location of stored data with a particular removable data cartridge. In particular, data backup/archive/restore applications maintain a database of which data was stored to which cartridges at which time in order to be able to properly retrieve data at a future date. The removable cartridges are identified by their barcode labels in the database. When it is necessary to restore data, the application will prompt the user or a cartridge automation system to load a particular cartridge based on a barcode value.
Prior art tape and optical library systems, which house numerous removable cartridges in off-line containers, include an optical barcode scanner mounted on a robotic arm or similar mechanical carousel assembly. Upon initialization of the system or receipt of a command to perform a cartridge inventory, the library scans the barcode label attached to the back of each cartridge by operating the robotic arm and/or carousel to mechanically scan past each cartridge. The inventory of barcode labels are then associated with the physical location of the data cartridge and stored in memory in the library system electronics. The cartridge barcode values may then be read by the host computer application to uniquely identify a particular cartridge.
As shown in FIG. 1, a tape library 100 has a robotic arm 124 that is movable to reach a number of tape cartridges that are inactively held in slots 112. The robotic arm 124 has a barcode scanner 128 attached that can be moved to each tape cartridge to read the bar code. The inventory of tape cartridges is returned from the tape library 100 to the host computer 120 that requested the inventory. The host computer 120 talks with the tape library using industry standard commands.
Often, users of tape cartridges update them with customized barcodes. These customized barcodes can be inventoried by a tape library just like those pre-printed on the tape cartridges. After the host computer receives the results from an inventory, application software can be updated with the new barcodes.
Tape cartridges can store information for the purposes of archive or other reasons. Application software that uses the tape cartridges can store an identifier onto the tape cartridge. If a barcode scanner is not available, recognizing the tape requires rewinding or fast forwarding the tape to find the spot where the identifier is stored. Once the identifier is eventually found, it can be returned to the application software.
In the appended figures, similar components and/or features may have the same reference label. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description is applicable to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label.